Question: Polishing hubs bearing surface

"Mike" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:89nka.2573$kd1.2578127 @newssrv26.news.prodigy.com:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll? I just wonder if this
could reduce the friction?

Everyone was doing that 30 years ago. Today, bearings are a lot better and many hubs have sealed
bearing cartridges that you can't easily polish yourself.

Ken said:

"Mike" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:89nka.2573$kd1.2578127 @newssrv26.news.prodigy.com:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll? I just wonder if this
could reduce the friction?

Everyone was doing that 30 years ago. Today, bearings are a lot better and many hubs have sealed
bearing cartridges that you can't easily polish yourself.

Huh? No one I knew was doing anything of the sort 30 years ago. Maybe using oil rather than grease
to reduce the insignificant friction of the bearings, but mostly they were too busy drilling holes
in components to bother with the bearings.

If you think you can improve a bearing race by polishing it by hand, you are mistaken.

Bearings are not better than what was available 30 years ago. Find an old Campy hub from that era,
and you will feel what smooth bearings can be. Granted, a lot of junk was on the market 30 years
ago, and bearings on cheap bikes now are better than what was on next-to-top quality bikes then. But
the bearings themselves are essentially the same, and the races of a good hub from that era were
excellent.

But the amount of friction, even from a not-so-great bearing, is far less than the rolling
resistance from your tires, which in turn is far less than the resistance of your jacket flopping
around in the breeze.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you _`\(,_ | killed all of us?
From every corner of Europe, hundreds, (_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places.
Even Nazis can't kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).

Mike who? said:

Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll?

Manually polishing ball bearing races does not make their significant irregularities smother
although it may polish these features. To make a uniform surface a smoother one is required. The
thumb and rag method does not do that. If you wanted to improve the surface finish you would need
machinery adequate for making bearing races.

Quoted message said:

I just wonder if this could reduce the friction?

What friction? Have you got some values? I think you'll find that ball bearing drag is in the range
of whether your socks reach over or below your ankle, when riding.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

"Mike" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll?

I just wonder if this could reduce the friction?

Yes lots of riders did that in the sixties and seventies. Yes and no. You might "reduce friction"
but the range from the worst hub to the best is infintesimally small compared to the significant
resistance of wind against your body. If it makes you feel better and you have nothing better to do
it is at least harmless but you will never notice the difference.

--
Andrew Muzi yellowjersey.orgyellowjersey.orgOpen ↗ Open every day since 1 April 1971

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Ken said:

"Mike" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:89nka.2573$kd1.2578127 @newssrv26.news.prodigy.com:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll? I just wonder if this
could reduce the friction?

Everyone was doing that 30 years ago. Today, bearings are a lot better and many hubs have sealed
bearing cartridges that you can't easily polish yourself.

Huh? No one I knew was doing anything of the sort 30 years ago. Maybe using oil rather than grease
to reduce the insignificant friction of the bearings, but mostly they were too busy drilling holes
in components to bother with the bearings.

I've heard from some old timers of using simichrome instead of grease in their bearings and then
riding around for a while. That supposedly would polish both the bearings and races. They would then
clean everything up and replace with fresh grease, campy of course.
-----------------
Alex __O _-\<,_ (_)/ (_)

"David L. Johnson" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Huh? No one I knew was doing anything of the sort 30 years ago. Maybe using oil rather than grease
to reduce the insignificant friction of the bearings, but mostly they were too busy drilling holes
in components to bother with the bearings.

Well, maybe my friend couldn't afford as nice hubs as your friends. We would buy mid-range French
aluminum hubs, pack the bearings with polish, and run them for a while to polish the hub races.
Replace the polish with grease before hitting the road, of course. All the bike shops were selling
Simichrome polish just for this purpose and the popular bike maintenance books of the time discussed
it. Of course, if you could afford Campy hubs, this was unnecessary.